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Is there any direct reference to how strong slaanesh was at the time of the fall of the aeldari? I'd assume that he/she would have been preeminent amongst the chaos gods due to the strong psychic souls of the eldar that he/she consumed by the billions? I can't think of any other event that represents such a power up to any of the chaos gods as slaanesh nomming on so many souls.

I think Slaanesh has always had the same level of power since the Fall of the Eldar, which is not significantly different to the other Chaos Gods. There's not really any particular events when the Chaos Gods have lost power in a major way IIRC except for Tzeentch breaking his staff.

Eating all the Eldar was a massive amount of power but 'all' it did was bring Slaanesh up to parity rather than being a minor god.

Slaanesh is depicted as the weakest of the four AFAIK.

Has that been retconned?

I don't think so but when I checked I couldn't find any mention of it. I do have a memory of Slaanesh being weaker than the others but not so much so they could just be killed off by the others. Like having a strength rating of 4.8 instead of 5.0.

I figured that that all the gods ebb and flow in power due to the nature of the warp and the success and failure of their schemes and followers. Not sure if that's canon but it makes sense to me.



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I think the slaves to darkness era ranked the gods by their number hence slaanesh was ranked the weakest.

I also have a hard time sorting out what is current canon and what has been retconned and overruled in the mad-dog's excrement that is GW's published works and what I have frankly just imagined.

As far as I recall; yeah there has always been an ebb and flow of relative power. The allegiances have shifted over the years, too. Khorne hates Slaanesh now, but it used to be Tzeentch, IIRC. 'Cause magic and trickery. Also yes, Slaanesh is the weaker of the four but not so weak as to be dismissed or vulnerable to annihilation except in case of the other three ganging up and piling in. Which also applies to each of the other three; none of them can 'survive' without support from at least one other.

Slaanesh is the youngest of the four, but like the other three is also timeless and ageless having been created by the Fall but also having always existed. 'Cause wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey stuff.

I don't recall Slaanesh ever being presented as the pre-eminent Power. For a while, a lot of people thought Shkle was going to get Squatted.

IMHO power rankings for the gods sort of defeats the point. THEY'RE GODS. their power is, largely limitless, and restricted only by the schemes of their rivals. if Khorne and Slaanish are compeiting for X and Khorne wins, Slaanish isn't less powerful, the matter eaither 1: simply went into an area that was more clearly Khrone's Sphere of Influence, or 2: Slaanish was outplayed (or perhaps foiled by a mortal champion)

I always read it as slaanesh being supercharged upon birth from eating all those souls. It then burns off this energy by wrecking the eldar pantheon, assuming fighting other gods takes energy/power.

It doesn't make sense to me if the eldar souls just propped slaanesh up to its current position as the weakest of the four. That would make the eldar pantheon combined weaker than slaanesh, meaning that the other three could've killed off those eldar gods at any time. Why wouldn't they just do that if they were able to? What were the other three even doing before the fall?

shortymcnostrill wrote:
That would make the eldar pantheon combined weaker than slaanesh, meaning that the other three could've killed off those eldar gods at any time.

The eldar gods were already weak when slaanesh was created since the eldar stopped worshipping them pre-fall, and I imagine that they got even weaker when the eldar died at the birth of slaanesh.

I agree with Brian, ideas like "strength" or "power" or "energy" do not apply to the Chaos Gods, being fundamentally unfathomable and self contradictory beings who exalt and debase themselves simultaneously.

All this stuff personifying them and having dramas about them like they are people rather than beings too great for any mortal to comprehend is super tacky and lame as far as I am concerned. Leave that stuff for bad Dungeons and Dragons settings.

This stuff comes from published canon.

I'm absolutely not inventing the fact that GW have described Slaanesh as the weakest of the four in the past. I just don't know whether that canon is still current.

But it definitely happened.

The original Realms of Chaos describes Slaanesh as clearly the newest and weakest of the 4 main Chaos gods. However this is like saying one billionaire has a few less million than another billionaire. Technically true but it makes no practical difference for the most part.

Slaanesh consuming the Eldar gods was the equivalent of somebody winning a massive lottery prize and suddenly being catapulted into the ranks of the rich.

In the Realms of Chaos the gods are also described as wagering over the conflicts on daemon worlds, as a champion being defeated by another god’s champion does weaken the god, though the Realms of Chaos also states that this is of no significance. It is like billionaires making $1 bets, like those old rich guys in Trading Places. The loser of the bet is poorer technically but by an insignificant amount.

I miss when Chaos seemed more about their Great Game and that was what all the Demon Primarchs did most of the time. Versus now when the Imperium seems an oddly high priority.

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